


Winning by Losing

by Ononymous



Series: Christmas 2020 Stories and Requests [12]
Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post-Deltarune Chapter One
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28598892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ononymous/pseuds/Ononymous
Summary: The senior class of Hometown School have seen the problem many times, a surly adolescent paying no heed to their academics, ignoring the world so they can sulk. Yeah, but Susie lightened up after she and Kris...Wait, it's not Susie sulking?
Series: Christmas 2020 Stories and Requests [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2074179
Kudos: 12





	Winning by Losing

"Noelle?"

"Here, Miss."

"Berdly?"

"Here!"

"Temmie?"

"hOi!"

"Monsterkid?"

"Yo!"

"Jockington?"

"Here."

"Snowdrake? Snowy?"

Looking up from a joke book. "Oh, here."

"Kris?"

"..."

"...I'll say you're here. Susie?"

A hand gesture.

"Present. Catti? ...is Catti h-here today?"

The eight students in the room looked at the empty desk in answer.

"Oh," said Alphys. "Kris, I know your M-Mom drives past Catty's house. D-did everything look okay?" A slight nod. "Does anyone e-else-"

BANG!

Alphys dropped her attendance sheet. "Oh, S-Susie! Wait..."

Everyone now looked to the violently opened door. Instead of the usual perpetrator, who was already sitting with her feet on the desk, there stood Catti. Her standard expression of disinterest was replaced with the slightest of scowls, threatening to tip into something considerably uglier.

"Oh, Catti! There y-you are. Is everything okay?"

"...yeah."

Alphys took a step back from her. "Um, technically you're t-tardy, but butbutbutbutbut I won't w-w-write you up for a few minutes. T-take your seat."

"..." acknowledged Catti, clearly full of gratitude. She stomped over to her desk and sat down. Then she took out her phone, which normally would have been seen with her entering the room, and ceased paying attention as Alphys resumed a lesson on calculus.

Susie, meanwhile, felt like someone was muscling in on her territory. "Heh," she whispered, "find a nasty surprise in your litter box?"

Catti turned back and glared at her. Kris looked around as well, seeing Susie's eyes bulge in rare fear as she nearly toppled backwards off her chair.

* * *

The morning class was mostly like any other day after that. The main difference was Catti's indifference feeling more like a non-aggression pact. She didn't object to the worksheet Alphys handed around the class, though Alphys treated leaving it on her desk like trying to avoid a landmine. The only other significant deviation was her refusal to aid Jockington in passing a note to Berdly. He'd poker her with his tail once too often, and as Alphys wrote the definitions of Sine, Cosine and Tangent on the blackboard, she turned back to find Jockington gone. It transpired he'd slithered under his desk lid when Catti looked back at him.

Soon it was lunchtime. Noelle left as the bell rang, having permission from Toriel to bring lunch to her father in the hospital. The three usual groups of diners in the canteen were now four, Catti shunning the three usual gangs to sit apart from all of them. Boasting - undeservedly - of his eagle eye vision, Berdly made an attempt at divining what was troubling her by watching her eating habits. The only thing he saw was what she ate, a sandwich of brown bread with what looked like a single leaf of lettuce for filling.

"I, Berdly, conclude..." he said, not too loud, "...that I've no idea what's bugging her." He then resumed his barbecue flavoured bird seeds.

"Chicks, man," said Jockington, licking at his hoagie in preparation for swallowing it whole.

Berdly's group wasn't the only one discussing it. "Yo," said Monsterkid, "you think her sister and Bratty had another big bust up or something?" He finished shaking salt over his fries with his tail and bent down to pick up a few in his mouth.

"No idea. I mean, I heard Officer Undyne had to be called to the last one," said Snowdrake, pecking at the salt and vinegar snowcone he had.

"Tem thiNk she wurRied bout... Wurld PEECe!" Temmie put down the hot sauce she'd been pouring on her Temmie Flakes, and tucked in.

The discussion of the third group was more of a soliloquy. Susie took a bite of her own hoagie, a much meatier one than Jockington's, and swallowed. "You think it's her time of the month?"

Kris looked up from the butterscotch cinnamon pie they'd been toying with. "..."

"Nah, I dunno what that is. I saw someone say it on human TV once. Do you know what it means?"

Kris let the question go unanswered.

Catti left the canteen quickly, having had a quick lunch to finish, and the discussion about her foul mood soon drifted to other subjects. Not that there were many places to hang out at lunchtime. Indeed the rest of her classmates were still there when Noelle turned up. Being the closest to the door, she sat down with Kris and Susie without thinking.

"Good, she's not here," she said, "guys, I think I know why Catti's so irritable today."

"Oh?" Susie leaned in, genuinely curious.

"I was visiting my Dad, and he told me about something he overheard yesterday. Doctor Drake was talking with Catti's Dad outside his ward."

"How did he know who it was?" asked Snowdrake, who had budged up to listen.

"Because he called Doctor Drake Douglas."

"Ah."

"Anyway, Doctor Drake said he was happy with most of his vitals, but he was concerned about his weight. That technically he's under the danger line, but that's only because of that missing arm of his."

"How'd he lose that, anyway?" asked Monsterkid.

"..."

"Catti never mentioned," said Noelle. "But when he heard that, Dad said he said 'Well that tears it, Douglas, I'm going on a diet. And so are the girls!'"

"OhhHhHH..." said Temmie's face. The rest of her was still with her flakes.

"Ah, that explains it," said Berdly, sitting between Noelle and Kris with the air of having solved it himself. "I mean, I'd never accuse her of being overindulgent, but Angel knows she isn't the most... graceful shape."

"Berdly, that's very avist of you," reproached Noelle, "different monsters have different shapes. I know birds need to be light enough to fly, but could you imagine Kris' Dad as skinny as you? You'd think he was ill!"

"But cats aren't goats," hissed Jockington. "That guy who works at Ice-E's is thinner."

"He more your type?" Susie fished for something in her jacket as Jockington scowled at her.

"You're still being reductive," continued Noelle, "and even if they would be healthier from losing a little weight, it's a big change-" Berdly shot the smuggest look at her poor choice fo words. "It's a _significant_ change at short notice, I think we'd all be grumpy. Temmie, what would you do if you were banned from eating Temmie Flakes?"

**"...War."** Everyone shuddered at the menace in her voice.

"Well I think we should be supportive for her until she can adapt to the diet," concluded Noelle. "Maybe Coach Aaron can help her develop an exercise regime. Kris, what kind of workout did he make your brother do for cross country...?"

Kris was gone, ignored in the debate.

In the classroom, Catti was absorbed in her phone, each tap of the screen an angry one. But she wasn't so absorbed she didn't sense someone approach.

"I don't know if you noticed," she warned, "but I'm not in the mood for a chat."

Something was placed on her desk. She looked up, ready with another death glare, only to see a large slice of pie before her. Kris stood clear of it, as if it wasn't anything to do with them.

"Not hungry," they said, and walked out.

Catti let four alerts on her phone go unanswered. Then started eating it. Their classmates probably know, she thought. That's why Kris did that. They'll say that Dad had a point. He does, she admitted, but he could have let her do it her way. Noelle's gonna be a goody two shoes and help her adjust. That featherbrain Berdly will take credit. And Temmie will be Temmie. She still wasn't in the mood for it, but the pie would maybe make her tolerate it.

**Author's Note:**

> Original suggestion: catti is put on a diet
> 
> Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!


End file.
